Soloing
SOLOING How to build a good soloer 1.Do some research on classes and races, also on the class mastery system. 2.A good soloer should have a way to heal himself frequently and do quick damage. 3.Good defense and high hp a must. Being said. Usually all petters do good at solo but at lower levels limited to dmg by pets, and weak defenses. Higher levels pets do quick dmg.Word of advice use high hp gear and jewelery.Work on agi to account for low ac. For tanks, I think best comes a shadowknight, because of lifetaps and proc heal,(tanks have the best defense in game). Slayers and savages prob best all round because off extra heals. Pallys do great but need more dmg.Pally werehunter be awesome dmg/heal combo. Warriors do good but need more heals.(hint hint troll savage) For melees Melees do dam good dmg so build high hp and defense. If possible look for decent ac and hp gear and use tps and buffs for dmg stats.Work on agility(Werelion gives sta and agi) Rangers got food, Monks got heal,Bards hot, Rogues i have no idea goodluck. General Info This game is very brutal about forcing you into the role of your class. The most important thing about building a good soloer is to pick the class that corresponds with your preferred goals and play style for soloing: pet caster if you dont want to pay heavily for repairs, melee if you get the most fun out of whaling on the mob, tank/healer if you like to solo slowly and safely. As a general rule of thumb (some exceptions apply), if you pick class X when class Y is better at job Z, then no matter how expertly you build your class X toon, you will never surpass class Y at job Z. The most you can hope for is to be as good as a very badly gimped toon of class Y. If you are intent on soloing your way to 50+, you must not be a healer. They simply cannot kill enemies and earn xp quickly enough while solo. Tanks are not a good idea either for solo xping, for the same reason. Even shadowknights do not do that much sustained damage over time, due to long recasts on their abilities. Bards and enchanters are also unwise, since both classes forego damage potential for mana-giving power. If you are intent on soloing the meanest, baddest, deadliest mobs that can be solo'd at 60, make a necromancer or a shaman (note that your solo-happy shaman will need help to get to 60!). Other classes just do not have the same combination of sheer offense and healing power that these two do at high levels - necros with emphasis on the offense, shamans with emphasis on the healing power. If you are intent on soloing just for fun, then pick the class you like the most. '' Soloing By Class'' Wizards Wizzies - clash path - StellarWinter69 Bind mob Cast familiar familiar draws aggro familiar tanks while wizzie casts clash line nukes if wizzie gains aggro or runs oom, bind rinse and repeat = Clerics As a cleric, if I am not so outmatched that it kills me in two rounds, and if I can root it, then I can solo it. Without rooting it can get a bit trickier. Use mark and personal tiny dmg shield (every little bit helps) A weapon with a DoT proc, switchin out to a weapo with a dd proc after DoT goes off. Use lowest possible heals, and sustain nukes, to conserve mana. Sometimes chain drinks if necessary. Either way it is gonna be a battle of attrition, takes forever to kill anything as a cleric For solo xp... dont be a cleric even on undeads it uses too much mana and takes way too much time for single kills. As a 54 CL and future Exorcist, I just pop on a brand spell and I can solo yellows without nuking or rooting. = Monks As a monk, I just let the fists and kicks fly. Lightblues 3+ levels below me are farmable pretty much non-stop. Here's what a tough fight would look like: Str/dex/sta/wis buffs. AC/agi/damage shield path buff if the mob is red. Start out with a 1.4k manticore tail from 30range. Once the mob is in kick range (either it comes to me or i come to it if it's a caster), I'll quad and let out a 180 damage kick, a 1k kick and another 400 kick if the mob is red (if not, skip 3rd kick to save power). Toss in a 475hp/pow buff here and repeat the the above. If my HP is now lower than the mob, I'll toss in a a 500 instant heal. By now I should be able to tell if I will win or lose the fight. If winning, I'll unleash a couple of combos between the kicks and manticore. Throw in a heal just to be safe and finish off the mob, usually with the 1k kick or manticore and quad. If losing, I'll quickly switch in sprint and get the hell out of there It's pretty much a race against when my HP runs out. The key is casting the spells in the right order so you're not wasting any split of a second. Mobs in order of increasing difficulty: War/Pally < SK < Melee < Casters w/ Necros being the most difficult. = Warriors Now I don't know about a Pillar Path warr but a Bellow Path can choose between the two and making yourself beefier against the mob is usually the better choice, your bellow paths will cover the second crit. I'd usually cast the highest Call To ability on myself, wait for my HP to regen, cast the highest dex buff I've got, quickly switch it and the Call To out for a bellow, kick, or crit ability. Open up with a quad, kick, and stomp. Immediately following the quad unleash a crit. Apply bellows as needed. Rinse and repeat. Understand that this will last about a good 90-120 seconds before you win...or lose I guess. Warriors are not fast soloers, we're good at damage over time instead. As far as just soloing light blues I'd just use quads and kick, keep Call To buffed. Sometimes throw in a Stomp and Crit ability when an add happens, use Bellows as needed. Done properly a warrior can solo light blues for quite some time without needing a break. Same thing, warriors are slow soloers even against blues, you won't take squat for dmg from em but you're still looking at spending about 30-60 secs dropping one if you expect to solo continuously for a while. = Pillar Path Warrior here. I can solo any melee type mob up to 4 levels higher. Method: 1st page load kick, stomp, two critical strikes and Rend 2nd page load standard load of call to war, steel skin, elemental buff, frantic defense, and Fortitude If fighting a second level red, ensure to have the highest possible food prepared. Con the mob you wish to solo, ensure no adds through-out the fight ( battle zone planning, ensure no roamers are likely ). When the coast is clear, attack - draw mob to selected battle zone. I.E. - when fighting a Mermaiden, red con at 51, draw her to the shore and stand just in the water. This does two things, gives you and easy out, and ensures no roamers from the water. Attack with rend, kick, stomp, first crit, kick , stomp, second crit, kick stomp, rend if it is up. At no point stop quading. Repeat last step till mob dies. If you get to two bulbs life left and the mob has more life than you , I reccomend eating once or twice as the mob hits you. The timing is key, to soon or too late and you get one tick of health as the mob attacks you again. If you eat as the mob is attacking you will get the first tic and the bonus health before the next round of attacks. Just red mobs you do not need to eat. Yellow and lower mobs, you normally do not get below two bulbs of life gone. This is with a high sta, str, agi and good gear. I do not have anything one would call "Uber". = The key is that you have to hope that the mob is in an open area with not a lot of risk of adds. If you have such a mob, start off the attack with a bow, perfereably one with a long range. Creep in on him and keep trying to shoot until you get just within range, keep auto attack on so you keep firiing as you're running away for dear life. You can kite a mob like this for a few hits (even longer if you want to cast a quick Sprint or Dash). Then when the mob is on you, quickly switch to your main weaps and go about soloing as described above. = Rogue As a Rogue, you load up your buffs, cast them, then quickly switch in two more direct damage abilities. Then you engage mob, run tight little circles around him trying to dump all backstabs and other DD abilities, finally you eat food every tick til either you or the mob is dead. - thraken76 = On the Rogue soloing technique. I guess my general rules for soloing are: 1) If it's a caster and it's lvl is not completely known, try and get help (lb is such a deceiving con, ie. at lvl 55, a lb can be like lvl 42 - 52) 2) Don't bother with reds 3) Yellows and below - cast AC "buff", agi buff, and dex/str buff, switch out quickly and engage. Unload at will and hope he drops before you do. I think my toolbelt for a solo encounter is something like the following, in no particular order: Mortal Wound, Wound, Lesser Wound, Deadly Backstab, Greater Backstab, Blighted Night, Toxic Blade, Venomed Blade, Poison Dart, and either the next highest Blade or Backstab. Eat food when necessary and have Vanish ready just in case. Bards Combat Path Bard technique to soloing a mob yellow mob 2 lvls higher than you. First you need to buff yourself, Mana regain, AC buff, Epic Combat buff, Heal tick. Let your hps fill up then cast your debuff, and immediatly switch out your debuff with your DoT then just lay into it, casting your DoT as often as you can. At first you will go down below half life, but don't fret, that was because of the crit, you will be fine and end the fight with at least 3/4 of your hps. This is of course not on a caster or healer. - Gaiborn = Shaman I've soloed some pretty hard stuff before but for just a regular solo grind here is my plan as a 57 Shaman. Cast pet - spiritual slayer, Cast avatar - self, Buff pet, Pull with primal malady, Cast vessel spirit, Heal if required - If mob is lt blue I seldom need to heal. Attack till dead. - deadlyduo = Druids Druids - I only solo quest mobs. Soloing for xp is too slow for a duid IMO, even light blues. But I have soloed everything up to red casters with the below method. Full buffs. AC, CHA, WIS, HP Full Damage Shields: Includes level 55 buff and sandles of burning sands DoT the mob from as far away as possible and the cast a big heal on myself since often times I don't know what to expect and to offset the crit. Pull mob to safety if roamers nearby. Adds=death. Keep DoT up at all times. Keep heal up as needed - often at all times. Nuke and mele constantly. Most of the high end mobs can't be rooted anyway so that's not an option. Hardest thing to deal with is POW. Running out of POW = no heals = fast death. Usually ok unless mob can hel itself, then it gets real hard (i.e. soloing ancient drudge while at level 55 - since he lifetaps, causing damage and healing himself in the process). = Shadowknights When soloing my belt looks as follows - 1. Bloodwraith 2. Bloodleech 3. Bloodraven 4. Bloodwasp 5. Hand of Innoruuk 6. Doomstrike 7. Bloodstrike 8. Death's Embrace (Upgraded for 1/2 recast) 9. Deadly Grasp (Upgraded for 1/2 recast) 10. Shroud of Death This is my typical set up for light blues - yellows (non-caster mobs). Typically I try and avoid casting mobs unless I know the resists. I can solo pretty much any normal melee mob I have come across. As long as there is no nuking involved I can solo pretty much any poison mob upto yellow I have had the pleasure of encountering. On light blues - dark blues, I can grind solo all day (for the most part) non-stop. In the past, I have gone hours on end at Dire Worgs, Hill Giants, Ice Giant Refs, Snow Griffons, Griffon Warriors, and Cyclops (typically Urglunt's House) w/out stopping or going OOM. What I do, is pretty simple and straight forward. Keep buffs up at all times (Hand Of Inn. and SoD). Unload w/ strikes and Touches whenever they are up. Cast a Blood as needed. I typically solo w/ Downfall (Epic Spear w/ 120 proc). W/ Downfall and SoD - I usually proc at LEAST once a combat round for added damage, a heal, or both. Rinse and repeat. On quest mobs and nameds, I typically have my toolbet set up as follows - 1. Bloodwraith 2. Bloodleech 3. Bloodraven 4. Bloodwasp 5. Harm Touch 6. Death's Embrace 7. Doomstrike 8. Dooming Darkness (DoT) 9. Highest Armor Drain (51 or 53) 10. Highest STA/AGI Drain (51 or 53) Make sure I got my Buffs up. Engage. Unload w/ Dooming Darkness, Death's Embrace, and Doomstrike, and Harm Touch. Then De-Buff. Throw out a Blood. Melee and hope for good procs. Blood as needed. Unload Embrace and Doom as they become available. Then hope to out last my enemy. - Syphadias = Heres a sk solo technique for a dk. Cast pet, get buffs, use hand of innurok buffs, switch buffs out of spell line. Get out highest debuffs, and lvl 60 snare/dot spell. Cast snare/dot to pull. Let pet take crit, run away like a wiz and cast all debuffs. Once pet dies, cast strike spells and hand spells. Make sure enough mana left for blood spells. Wear mana proc coralium if mana is an issue, and save harm touch for last in case mana is 0 (ht costs 0). If it looks like your gonna lose, cast snare/dot and run in circles like a dread, healing yourself with either band aids or food. Once spells come back, repeat. Cast snare/dot so that mob doesnt reset, and keep hp the same because dot should counter the mobs hot. Also, if its a caster, knowing the resist and having max resist is key. Not sure if many sks actually use the snare technique, cause they like to go all out head to head. But hey, running in circles and chowing down is always a good thing. = Necromancers It gets easier to solo with Howling Death at 44 and then the upgraded CM version at 45 becuase of more dmg output plain and simple. Also let me not i am a blood path necro and always have my two highest path spells on tap at all times which at lvl 46 are my 30 and 40 path spells. I will pull out pet, Buff pet and AC buff myself. Put pet on DEFENSIVE so he DOES NOT attack until i take dmg. Pull mob with a siphon sta so my HP takes a bump while fighting mob comes over and I will take the crit, pet unloads on mob usually a HT followed by a siphon buff and then melee attack. Next i fire off a DoT as soon as i can, this is key to help you getting aggro back. Using blood path and my lifetap spells to get my hp back up from the crit. Then I am nuking in moderation until pet is almost 50% dead at which point I usually need another DoT along with every high nuke i have. to regain aggro, which IS HARDER because of the pet having HT but it can be done. Now if this is done and timed right you may or may not take a hit before the mob is dead it all depends on the lvl of the mob along with amount of dmg done from the pet and your DoT's - madman7878 = Magicians There are a few ways a mage can solo. If your soloing lbs, its simple just bust out the pet, make sure he keeps aggro heal as needed and repeat. If your soloing reds, its a similar story but a bit different. If the mob can be rooted. A mage can solo it. If it cannot you need to be more careful indeed. First, you need to decide on what pet your going to use. You have two main choices. One is the earth pet, who can hold aggro with his taunts allowing you to chain cast and heal, but you have to heal him all yourself. So, the tactic goes this way. 1. Cast Badi 2. Buff Badi(especially agitate since the update because of the 220 tick heal) 3. If you know you can take the crit and not die, then you should take the crit and let Badu taunt it off you. If you cannot take the crit, send the pet in. 4. Chain cast Renewal and Impart whenever they pop up to keep your pet healed. 5. In between healing your pet. Cast freeze whenever you can. This is too keep your aggro lower and to conserve mana instead of blasting him with blaze. 6. If you seem to be gaining aggro, stop casting while earth pet does a few taunts to pull it off you. 7. If Badi is going to die, root. Make sure she does not die or you will have a whole bunch of aggro on you. 8. Let Badi self heal, while you continue to keep mob rooted. 9. When Badi is full, send her in again. 10. Repeat if necessary. The second pet you could use is Ghilan. 1. Cast Ghilan 2. Buff Ghilan 3. Take the crit so Ghilan will heal you and steal aggro with her huge heal on you. 4. Chain cast freeze and conglaciation because Ghilan can keep herself healed. 5. If Ghilan seems to be getting low on health, cast and impart/renewal combo. 6. During the battle you can take aggro away to give her a break by quickly chaining blaze and freeze and a few heals. 7. She will then heal herself and you and regain aggro. 8. If things go bad, root. 9. Ghilan will heal herself and regain aggro. 10. Send her in again. 11. Repeat if necessary. The major difference between the two pets, is that Badi is helping you out with damage, but you are doing less because you need to focus more on healing him. Ghilan allows you to do more of the damage and share aggro since she can heal you as well. Both are very good soloing pets. I even soloed Elder Elephant with my lvl 43 Ghilan to give you a sense of how well she can do. I have soloed many of the level 55 quest mobs using Badi. You can run into some trouble if you are fighting a caster or healer, but so does any soloer. If the mob cannot be rooted, Ghilan is better because of your ability to steal aggro from her and let her heal you and herself and give her sometime to regain health. Remember mages have 350-400 agility so they can take regular hits pretty well. The crits hurt, but if the mob doesn't crit that often you can do pretty well with switching aggro between ghilan and yourself. - Meddler = Rangers Okay I solo A LOT. I like the challenge. I make sure I have extra armor on my mule and LR and Ruby jewlery to replace my bracrs adn jewelry if I need to. I wear my Baleful Hide BP (I own two for keeping spot for a length of time and 70 dur tunics for melees hard t osome by that have dex adn a damage shield built in). I also buff myself to the T dex and Agiul and my own ac/dmg shield. I switch out buffs for all my quick cast bow abilities...Static to burning all of them. I put up sow adn root in case (root blows but has saved me once in a whiel dont really use unless I am gonna die). I have 20 foraged herbs at all times and 20 pies to spam with my food heal target spell. I unload arrows alternating abiities and regular arrows until all arows spells grayed out. I eat an herb and a piece of pie. I hit kick..THEN switch bow to my two procing sowrds (If tough mob is use np max swords no proc). I then melee for e round simply letting some mana recharge. If I need food I eat... I use specials alternating with melees to concserve mana. All the while my 2 damage shields adding 47 tic desease damage everytime I get hit. I will use my targetable food heal on myself If i have enough mana and need a 3rd food spam as I am low to 1 bubble if I am ever that close...mona is a fair trade for life..LOL. If anything gets hairy I stop attking and use food alternating with herbs and food helas till i get a bubble or more (damage sheidl ticking) adn then melee. If it is stil lclsoe i pull bow bac kout and unload static arrow and a regular arrow and that usually seals the deal and immediately I eat an herb,.... OKAY that is a tough mob.... I solo grind dbs and lbs all the time and jsut alternate food heals after each fight as my hot is high enough to survive a fight without healing dbs and lbs....(non casters). and I food heal after adn mana usuall ystays up as Iahve good power pool. I do wear stamina earrings and a ring of endurance for hp's and HoT. AS far as casters are concernded...First off I got wasted b wizzy adds twice last night because my food heal will attract them from far away if I am not paying attention in that fariy village.... Casters are my favorite thing to do casue the challenge is there...as arnager at my level 52 my best one tic herb is 175 with my regen cms and initial food tic...so that 600-650 nuke casted 3 times on me is a killer.... I try to use LR gear but sometimes I dont. I really unload all arrows and abilities first and the nheal wit hall 3 forms of food heals and the nmelee and special the hell out of the caster. Healing intermittently if needed. DB casters I can take kills my mana..took a yellow caster a while back have not attempted since was real close and I ate all 20 herbs and pies LOL I roll through lb's but them wizzys sometimes seem to nuke me and extra time and Iam done for...as far as casters adds...2 lb casters I can live an lb and a db probably not anything higher I may try to hit sowand a food heal up front and book it praying my food heal tics and my hot help and I get out of range asap..but otherwise hello cleric mind a rez? That is it soloing as a food healing ranger..Woot. Solo in groups Essentially, find people around your level who like to solo as well, and group with them. Then, find a camp with good soloing mobs and have everyone solo. It is the exact same as soloing normally but you get xp from each others kills as long as you are in range of one another...meaning you get xp that much faster. I guess you might call it symbiotic soloing..... I used to do this also, and there's actually another benefit to solo-ing in groups. If you get into trouble, usually people are pretty good at helping out. I did this with a group at bandits, what seems like forever ago, and it worked out good whenever one of us got in over our heads, the others would help out. Afterward, we'd go back to our solo-ing. Anyway, just another added benefit...